Does Your Sanding Make Sense? "Trouble starts when taking off more than a belt can handle, or taking off more than the scratch pattern of the previous head. These are the most common mistakes in sanding... It can be incredibly frustrating to see a company trapped in a prison of their own design because they really never und ......

A Tale of Two Grit Sequences Sophisticated practical advice on the wise sequence of grit choices for a belt sander to optimize sanding effectiveness while removing final scratches and preventing burnishing defects. November 12, 2014

Hardwood Lumber Tallies Are you being shorted on a lumber delivery? The answer could depend on the fine points of board-foot calculations. April 19, 2015

Dust Collection and Planer Noise Airflow from a new dust collection made a planer noisier, but switching to helical insert tooling made it quieter again. January 12, 2015

Can Carbide Saw Blade Chips Kill? There's no source for the rumor that a carbide saw blade fragment struck a woodworker in the heart. But woodworking kickback is deadly dangerous  no doubt about that.November 14, 2014

Tablesaw Lubricating Advice Tips on lubricating a sticky mechanism for raising and lowering the blade on a cabinet shop table saw. April 18, 2010

Does Helical Insert Tooling Create Glue-Ready Edges? A shop owner asks about helical insert jointer knives for edge jointing, and sets off a long and informative discussion about the comparison between high speed steel, carbide knives, and insert cutterheads. April 18, 2015

"Chip Dent" in Planed Lumber Here's a long, detailed examination of the problem of denting in planed wood, caused by knives pressing chips into the wood surface. Unfortunately, no solutions. October 15, 2009

Lumber Tally: Rough Versus Milled When you buy dressed lumber, the quantity is tallied based on the rough board footage, before milling. The "rip-off" percentage can sometimes confuse the buyer. September 27, 2012

Fine-Tuning a Small Moulder Less expensive equipment may need more attention to perform up to snuff. Here are some detailed tips on "tweaking" the machinery. October 14, 2006

Start-Up Manufacturing Millwork It's harder than a beginner might think to make money producing mouldings on a shoestring. Old hands discuss the hard truths in this thread. April 4, 2011

Getting to Know the Jointer A beginner has trouble his first time out with a new jointer, and learns a few things from the experience. April 27, 2007

Importing Machinery A woodshop owner takes a chance on importing his own machinery straight from Asia, takes a chance, and reports back on the results. August 19, 2008

Capacitor Explodes on Bandsaw A long story about failure and repair of a capacitor (note: capacitors can kill you with live electricity even when the machine is turned off or unplugged). March 28, 2012

Tuning Up an Out-of-Whack Jointer Bed Pros ponder what could be causing a jointer to create a "belly" in every freshly jointed board. (In this case, turns out it was a misalignment of the infeed and outfeed tables.) April 27, 2007

Moulder Purchasing Advice A woodworker going into the moulding business gets advice on moulder choices and related issues. December 26, 2007

Elliptical Moulding Jigs and Tricks Simple curves are hard: elliptical shapes require a high degree of skill and experience. Here's a long discussion with photos from some seasoned old hands. April 12, 2013

Calibrating Wood Thickness for CNC Part Production A CNC shop needs help figuring out how to achieve consistent thickness on stock before sending it to the CNC for cutting into small parts. The discussion ranges over belt sander accuracy, planer choices, onion-skinning techniques, and more. April 21, 2008

Are Machinery Trade Shows Worth It? A machinery supplier gets feedback from shop owners about the value of showing his equipment at national and regional shows. Bottom line: shop owners go to trade shows looking to choose and buy. August 29, 2005

Attention, Safety Practices, and Loose Nuts A woodworker describes how a moment's inattention damaged his machine  but luckily, not him. The tale sets off a long thread of similar stories (including one fatality) and lessons learned. November 16, 2011

Bearing Life and Scheduled Equipment Maintenance Replacing worn-out bearings is a non-routine task, but routine maintenance can keep you from having to do it often  or ever. Here's a detailed discussion of maintenance planning and bearing repair. May 15, 2012

Labor and Cost for a Complex Wood Window The fine woodwork for a custom decorative window can be painstaking and slow. Here are some detailed thoughts on methods and the time involved (including an interesting description of doing the work with a CNC).June 12, 2013

Power Saving Effect of an Inverter on a Resaw Here's an interesting discussion of the power savings you can get by using an inverter to start a large electric motor, and of the possible complications involved in doing so. November 5, 2013

Modifying a Shaper to Run in Reverse A question about setting up a second-hand shaper leads to an informative discussion about the fine points of running machinery in both forward and reverse directions. September 18, 2014

Tooling for Teak Teak is hard and abrasive, and takes its toll on knives and blades. This long, informative thread delves into the heavy-duty tooling choices for handling extra-hard woods, and also touches on useful techniques for working with teak. December 1, 2005

Sanders Basic descriptions of every type of sanding equipment commonly found in wood shops. November 13, 2008

Figuring Out Woodshop Power Requirements Amps, volts, watts, horsepower, and all that jazz: here's an instructive thread on how to figure out if a building's power supply will support your plans for shop equipment. July 9, 2007

Sharpness of High Speed Steel Versus Carbide Tooling Here's a long, technically detailed, and authoritative thread that explains why high speed steel can be sharpened to a finer edge than carbide, but will lose that edge quickly in hard or abrasive materials. (And more.) February 22, 2011

Rounding Over Hardwood Block Ends This week's "stump the chumps" puzzler: how to round over the ends of toy hardwood building blocks in a volume production setting. No answers, but an intriguing question. January 27, 2008

Shaper Cutter Choices A small shop owner who has just purchased his first shaper gets advice on his cutterhead options. December 1, 2005

How Much Wood to Take Off Per Planer Pass A shop worker tasks with dimensioning a large volume of lumber gets advice on improving productivity and reducing drudgery without damaging the product, the equipment, or his work relationships. September 8, 2014

Value of a Vintage Tenoner This discussion, started by a woodworker who is considering purchasing an old Powermatic tenoner for window reproduction, goes into lots of useful detail about how to get the best from this valuable machine. July 8, 2014

Profile Grinding Bent Wood The developer of an innovative method for extreme-bending hardwood explores options for profiling his bent pieces using abrasive wheels. March 12, 2014

Straight Line Ripping on Two Edges Cabinetmakers discuss the difficulty, cost, benefits, and drawbacks of buying lumber that has been straight line ripped on two edges  or buying the equipment and doing it yourself. October 13, 2012

Whether to Rip Your Own Stock Cabinet shops consider the pros and cons of setting up to gang-rip and surface stock, instead of ordering it that way from a supplier. February 12, 2009

Troubleshooting Nicks in Moulder Knives Newly ground knives can be damaged right away by hard mineral deposits within some hardwoods. Here's advice on knife material choices that could help avoid the problem. June 11, 2010

Knife Characteristics for Best Moulder Finish Quality This informative thread includes some expert discussion of the old-school method of back-beveling cutter knives, and also describes other knife characteristics that can improve the quality of machined wood straight off the moulder. August 13, 2014

Alternatives to Honduran Mahogany A discussion of the qualities of some of the woods used as substitutes for Mahogany, plus an attempt to clear up some of the confusion around the much-misused "Mahogany" label. February 5, 2007

Glue Joint Ripping Capability on the Gang Rip Saw Tim Brown of Mereen-Johnson Machine Company offers tips on stock prepping, equipment setup, maintenance, and operation that can allow you to achieve a joint suitable for edge gluing directly off the gang rip saw. August 6, 2010

Hook Angles for Hardwood and Softwood Moulder pros discuss the reasons to prefer a 12° or a 20° hook angle in different situations, for minimizing tearout, getting a good finish, and maximizing tool life. May 28, 2008

Shapers Versus Router Can a 1.5 horsepower shaper outperform a 3 horsepower router for cutting door panels? Yes, but best would be a 3 horsepower shaper. January 16, 2012

Pitch Build-Up When Planing Air-Dried Pine There's no way to stop Pine pitch from gumming up machinery, short of kiln-drying the lumber. (This thread has some interesting asides about using your own sawn wood for construction.) April 27, 2011

Inverter Cooling and Ventilation Inverter power supply electronics generates heat, and the units should be adequately cooled and ventilated for good performance and long life.October 26, 2011

Tooling Up for High-Volume Crosscuts Jump saw, radial arm saw, miter saw  what kind of equipment would be cost-effective investment for work requiring thousands of cross-cuts on short pieces of solid lumber? April 27, 2011

Profiling Fir Slower feed rates, sharper tools, multi-edge cutterheads, and very cautious climb-cutting can reduce the tearout and splintering that are common problems when profiling Doug Fir. October 4, 2011

Variable Angle Chamfers in a Production Job Shaper? Router? Table saw? A woodworker wants to know the best equipment choice for machining large quantities of beveled flat stock at various angles with high accuracy and ease of adjustment. June 4, 2012

Increasing RPMs and Feed Speed on a Jointer Moulder In theory, upping the RPMs and feed speeds at the same time will allow faster production with the same number of knife marks per inch. However, there are a few practical cautions to keep in mind. February 27, 2007

Down-Sizing the Motor on a Used Sander A shop owner can get a great deal on a used wide-belt, but he doesn't think his shop has the amps to run it. What are his options for matching his power to the machine? September 17, 2008

Understanding Drying Stress in Wood A complaint about cupping in mahogany door stiles after machining leads to a discussion of what causes drying stress and related movement in kiln-dried wood. June 23, 2006

Understanding Carbide Planer Knives A question about planer knives that can hold an edge with exotic hardwoods leads to a detailed explanation about quality grades in the carbide knife market. June 9, 2007

Replacing Electronics for Big Iron Here's a tip: shop around for parts or components before you buy a whole new touch screen, display, controller, or similar electronic element for shop machinery. You could save a bundle. January 2, 2012

Economics of a Defecting Saw For a big investment, you can get smart equipment that senses and cuts out knots in accordance with your cutlist. But that cost isn't worth it for every operation. May 23, 2007

Shapers Basic descriptions of various types of shaper found in wood shops. November 13, 2008

Balancing Drill-Holes on Tooling Cutterheads may be balanced at the factory by drilling small holes to remove weight. But that won't salvage a poor-quality cutter. September 10, 2007

S4S Moulder: Is It Worth It? A shop owner is considering buying a 4-head moulder to dedicate to producing S4S stock. Opinions vary on the value of that investment  the difference may lie in the quantity he needs to produce. October 22, 2005

Fire Sprinkler Damage to Machinery Thoughts about the insurance claim issues and the practicality of repair or restoration of equipment after a small fire sets off the fire sprinklers in a shop. February 26, 2012

Adjusting a Shaper Spindle A bent spindle, bad bushings, or worn spacers could cause a shaper to wobble and make sloppy cuts. Here's advice on making precise adjustments or repairs. January 2, 2012

Setting Up a Power Feeder A cabinetmaker gets advice on adjusting a power feeder he bought second-hand with no manual. November 13, 2009

Grinding Wheel Glazing Tips to minimize the problem of knife-grinding wheels loading up with metal during use. September 17, 2008

Achieving Clean Router Cuts on End Grain A cabinet shop wants to machine their own rosettes, but has trouble getting clean end-grain cuts. Here's advice on routing wood end-grain, or on using MDF instead. February 9, 2008

Saw Blade Rake: Negative or Positive? The rake on a saw blade's teeth affects the tendency of wood to move during cutting. Rake angle should be different for blades used on different types of saws. October 1, 2010

Shopping for a Straight-Line Rip Saw There are different flavors of straight-line ripsaw for different parts of the industry. Here's advice for a cabinetmaker with a budget, shopping for a smaller machine. January 2, 2012

Cutter Choices Carbide cutters, insert knives, or high speed steel? Pros weigh in on the options. August 31, 2005

Power Feed Roller Hardness Shop owners and experts discuss the ins and outs of maintaining, resurfacing, or replacing roller wheels for power feeders. October 1, 2005

Motor Change-Out for a Shaper Does it make more sense to change from a 3-phase to a 1-phase motor, or to invest in a rotary phase converter? Alternatives are pondered in this thread from the Solid Wood Machining forum. November 13, 2005

De-Nailing Antique Pine Advice on finding and removing the nails from reclaimed lumber before milling into flooring. April 27, 2007

Correct Spelling of "Curtate Trochoids" Clearing up the confusion about these ubiquitous machining marks called curtate trochoids. That's why we call it the "Knowledge Base," folks. You can't learn this stuff at those other websites. August 15, 2007

Drying Technique and Wood Hardness Those in the know describe the effects of case-hardening (a drying defect) and how to diagnose it, as opposed to hardness that would affect machinability of wood. July 30, 2007

Using Router Bits with a Shaper The proper spindles sizes are hard to find, and there's also debate about whether a shaper spins too slowly for router bits. Still, here is some practical advice. January 2, 2012

Preventing Pine-Sap Buildup Pine sap is building up on the bed and rollers of his moulder, reports a shop owner who's milling up large batches of flooring from reclaimed pine. Others supply advice for cleanup and prevention. October 20, 2005

Reducing Shaper RPMs Advice on stepping down a shaper's drive motor to accommodate a sanding wheel. March 27, 2012

Stock Power-Feeder Horsepower Feeders come in 1/4-horsepower, 1/2-horsepower, and 1-horsepower versions. What you need depends on what you're doing, but more horsepower is usually better. June 12, 2006

Fuzz and Tearout with Soft Maple What's causing machining problems with soft maple? Could be the hook setting, the knife angle, or just too high a moisture content. July 13, 2005

Chipload Charts and Cutting Data Here's some useful data on machine settings to achieve the desired chipload for good performance of moulders and jointers with various types of wood and sheet goods. September 26, 2010

Power Feed Roller Life Softer rollers grip better, but don't last as long. Here are tips on stretching the lifetime of a feed roller. May 28, 2006

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for others in different circumstances. Readers should undertake the use
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